DBM allots P40B for 3rd tranche of gov't workers' salary hike
At the Kapihan sa Manila Bay Forum on Thursday, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has allocated about P40 billion in the proposed P6.79-trillion national budget for 2026 'for the third tranche of Salary Standardization… effective January 1 next year.'
'That's four tranches until 2027,' Pangandaman said.
The yearly salary increase for civilian government workers was pursuant to Executive Order 64, which was signed by President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. in August 2024.
Marcos' EO 64 states that the updated Salary Schedule shall be implemented in national government agencies in four tranches, with the first implementation on January 1, 2024; the second on January 1, 2025; the third on January 1, 2026; and the fourth and final tranche beginning on January 1, 2027.
This applies to all civilian government personnel, now existing or hereafter created in the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches, the constitutional commissions and other constitutional offices, state universities and colleges, and government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) not covered by Republic Act 10149 and EO 150, s. 2021, regardless of appointment status, whether regular, casual, or contractual; appointive or elective; and on a full-time or part-time basis.
This shall not apply to military and uniformed personnel; government agencies that are exempt from RA 6758; GOCCs under RA 10149 and EO150; individuals engaged without employer-employee relationship and funded from non-Personnel Services appropriations/budgets, such as consultants and experts engaged for a limited period to perform specific activities or services with expected outputs, laborers engaged through job contracts (pakyaw) and those paid on a piecework basis, student workers and apprentices, and those whose services are engaged through job orders, contracts of service, or others similarly situated.
The second tranche was implemented on January 1, 2025.
Under the four-tranche salary standardization initiative, a typical government employee under Salary Grade 15, for example, could expect a minimum monthly salary of P42,178—an increment from the current P40,208 under the second tranche of the scheduled wage adjustment for bureaucratic workers.
Also under the initiative, each of the salary grades from 1 to 32 has eight salary steps to determine the rate of salary depending on the length of service in the position. Only Salary Grade 33, the highest level, has two steps in the latest salary adjustment schedule.
The first step represents the minimum or the hiring rate for the position or salary grade, while the second to seventh steps are the intermediate rates.
The eighth step is the maximum salary rate. —VBL, GMA Integrated News
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